


American Mouth Sleepless South

by cloudfactories



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Office, Eventual Romance, Fluff and Humor, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Meet-Cute, Past Relationship(s), Romantic Comedy, past johndo, typical contemporary rom-com
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:00:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 18,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27838735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cloudfactories/pseuds/cloudfactories
Summary: Johnny, as hyped up as he is, gets into an elevator, wearing his headphones on. Along with the lyrics, Johnny says aloud ‘I love you’ aloud but never expects a reply in the lines of “I love you too”  from a very sleep deprived colleague of his, who turns out to be Jaehyun from a few floors above him. By the causality of life, over unfinished matcha shakes and hotdogs, a cat and a jealous ex, they keep bumping into each other afterwards.
Relationships: Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun/Suh Youngho | Johnny
Comments: 8
Kudos: 60
Collections: Coffee Dates Fest [1st Round]





	1. I See Him If I See Him

**Author's Note:**

> ➼ once again, i'm showing off my incapability of writing a proper summary, but i hope you enjoy the fic as much as I did writing it. also, my laptop died on me mid-way of writing it, so I made-do with the scraps I had on my drive. so kids, backup responsibly. the mods were super lovely to me, and i had fun working for the fest.  
> ➼recommended for the bgm: frank sinatra.

With his head furiously bobbing to the upbeat of the trumpets, and the irresistible rhythm of Frank Sinatra’s mighty voice, Johnny found himself in the jurisdiction of the new 60s playlist he made last night on a whim. Even though made spontaneously, Johnny must admit to himself that he had an impeccable taste. He complimented himself on that, patting himself in the arse as a means of “Good Job, Champ!” but surely, as soon as that, mocked himself by saying, “Try to hear the same comment from your boss.”

Floundering arms, twisting and turning over his head, and boots shuffling across the smooth tiles of the forecourt of his office, brushing away the weird looks his coworkers gave him in the process with his flamboyant gestures. As legend once said, _shake it off_ _!_ He was celebrating God knew what day, but as his motto stood proud across his chest said, YOLO. He was literally living every moment of his life, and as the playlist blasted in his ears, it blessed him with heaps of inebriated joy in tops of his usual perkiness. Nothing came dour in his eyes, not even the sagged and hallowed eyes of his coworkers’, tugged in by the heaviness of their dark circles.

He felt overjoyed that particular day (not with an exception of his daily life). He slid straight for the lift, lined up on either side of the narrow corridor. There weren’t many bystanders, to be honest, just the front desk manager (who wasn’t unfazed by Johnny’s hype that morning) and a couple of interns from HQ. “Applauds would have been nice”, _now_ that Johnny thought. They picked the lift on the other side, leaving Johnny alone for the right.

That proved that they chose the other lift on purpose, to keep their distance from who was a living clown and was very proud of it. It was freaking 6 am in the morning, not 2 at the wee hours of the night. People would think he was relishing his drunken night from before but no…he was a tad bit overjoyed.

He chose _embarrassment_ , in other words.

The lift dinged open and with hopping legs, he danced his way in. He didn’t notice the other lifeless man who resorted to one corner of the lift, drowsy out of his wits. _Probably, ascending from GF_ _,_ Johnny thought. It might as well be, that he was sleeping while standing. Johnny gave a swift glance at him, trying to resist the urge for waltzing a musical right in that lift. But he was being considerate, checking the shabby state the man was in. Rough strands sticking out everywhere, tie messily tucked in his cardigan compared to Johnny’s iron pressed, crisp black shirt and tightly collared tie with his hair slicked to the side with expensive hair moose, that made his hair glint under lights. With a look at the man’s ID, he registered that man was from HQ, two floors above him and his name was in the lines of _‘Jung…_ ’ and the rest was blurry.

Johnny shrugged, and subdued his gaze on to his cleanly polished boots. He couldn’t resist humming to the next song that came booming into his ears, which was ‘Somethin’ Stupid’ by Sinatra. The lift was deliberating moving 5 floors up, which would land Johnny to his own floor while the HQ, as Johnny deemed the man was appointed in, on the 8th. His fingers clicked in its own accord, along with the tambourine jingles as his mouth couldn’t stop itself murmuring along the lyrics…

_**“Then afterwards we drop into a quiet little place and have a drink or two…And then I go and spoil it all by saying somethin' stupid like, "I love you"** _

****

“I love you.” Johnny sang along. But among the bass of the sweet tune in his ears, the baritone tone of Frank Sinatra…he heard a groggy voice answering him along.

“I love you too.” The sleepy man, from the corner of the lift, mumbled audibly. Johnny stared at him for a bit, and snapped his neck from right to left seeing if there was anyone beside him and the man, but was to no avail. _He wasn’t hearing things, was he?_ He fished his phone out from his coat pocket, and swiped the track 20 seconds prior…but he couldn’t find any “I love you too” in the lyrics.

So, it meant, the man right in front, a minute away from dozing off for the night, inadvertently confessed to him. But he couldn’t just prove it like that, he needed more evidence. More instances.

“I love you,” Johnny repeated.

“I love you too.” The man answered again, and clearly that time, Johnny noticed. How his mouth cutely petered off to an I love you before trailing to some small cut yawns and smacking his lips. His lips formed a petite pout, which in Johnny’s opinion, was very cute. It was getting interesting as Johnny yet again, with his reticence being only 1% of his body, continued mocking the man in his vulnerable state. It was like having his own performance of ventriloquism, except he had to talk a lot to induce a reaction.

“I love you.” That was the first time Johnny had said that many ‘I love you’s to a man, intentionally.

“I love you too.”

It was enough for now and Johnny let him be, thinking that it was up to another time that he would take advantage of that situation. Other than the ‘I love yous' that came unconsciously from the other man, Johnny had considered him adorable (to an extent, that was). Perhaps, he would knock him up someday later and embarrass him shamelessly in front of anyone. That would be a whole lot fun. Johnny paused the song and held off to listen to it sometime later, in the day. Lunch would be a great slot.

The lift doors slid open and Johnny paced out of the lift, humming to himself. He shot a glance over his shoulders, and with the last look at the sleepy man and how he was lazed over the cold, metal walls of the lift, he sent his thoughts and prayers that the man could find his way to his office safely. After passing down the he soon came face to face with other familiar colleagues.

“Yo! Cool bro!” He hollered, once the red-haired male came into his view. He shot him finger guns, and watched how Taeil’s smile widened once he noticed him.

“Man, it’s been a while.” Taeil’s arm stretched to grab Johnny in a buddy hug, which the latter reciprocated excitedly. If anyone enjoyed Johnny’s hype state and jumped in on it, it was Taeil. One of the reasons, he was one of Johnny’s most cherished colleagues.

“How was Cali? Hot beach, hot girls.” Johnny slurred teasingly, poking Taeil’s sides. Taeil only chuckled, with his head lolled back.

“I couldn’t visit the beach ‘cause every fucking one was full capacity. I was like, man, just let this old tiny man in. So I settled with listening to Katy Perry’s California Girls in my car, in the parking lot, more than once.”

“That’s unfortunate.”

Taeil jabbed Johnny’s arm with his elbows, “California Girls gives you more of that beach feeling than you would get from an actual beach.”

“Have to give a try. But, unfortunate, that I don’t have a playlist curated for the ‘beach feeling’”

“I’ll share mine, okay?” Taeil assuaged with a cock of his eyebrows, before patting him on the arms. Before Taeil could turn on his heels, Johnny yanked him back, meeting Taeil’s tipped chin close to his chin.

“Hey…um…” He slowly released his grip over Taeil’s biceps, retreating his hand back to his sides, “…do you know someone…anyone actually…by the name of Jung?”

Taeil looked at him confusedly as he proceeded to itch his neck, “Is this a lottery? Because, John, there are perhaps thousands of Jung in this damn country and you’ve to be a bit more specific for me to narrow it down. Unless, it is a lottery and you actually go with the one I recommend or pretend to know.”

“No, it is fine then.” Johnny shrugged, leading his way towards the end of the corridor as he walked Taeil past. He hollered loudly for Taeil to hear clearly without looking back, “Thank you!”

Johnny rummaged through his pockets, praying to dear God that he remembered to bring his ID. It was only those times, he actually preferred to be religious. Yet, Dear God never came to his plea because he forgot to even pack his wet tissues along with the letter he was going to submit to Taeyong (the evil incarnate that he had as a boss). Nothing ever went by his will, so he gave searching the corners of his pockets for a dime and walked ahead towards the front desk, then praying that Donghyuck would let him in, after some decent solicitations and promises of treats down at the bakery. The latter was an unreliable claim.

Johnny took a sigh and wrapped the hems of his suit closer to the middle. He buttoned the third most one, and raked his hair to the side to appear more appealing and dashing. All in thinking that Donghyuck would give in to his temptation and beep him in for the nth time, with a tiring groan.

“Hey…” Johnny slid his elbows across to Donghyuck’s desk and he asked sultrily, “What’s my favourite buddy doing today?”

“We fucked last week, you sent me thirst texts yesterday and wanted me to respond to your hopeless booty calls so I am not sure who you are calling buddy. Is it me?” Donghyuck deadpanned, “I am not sure if you are but if you are implying acquaintances- mind that, we are not friends- with benefits, I’ll give you that.”

“Wow…” Johnny threw his arms off from the desk, “Convincing.”

“What do you need?” Donghyuck asked dryly.

“Beep me in.”

“Sure after I…” Donghyuck dug out his phone in front of him, and unlocked it, “…read you the crude texts last night. It sounds more of a 90s plumber porn than anything.”

“Don’t.” Johnny tried to pull the phone from Donghyuck’s hands but the latter swiftly dodged it away.

He cleared his throat, fixing his glasses over the slope over his nose as he read, “less than sign, series of equals to sign which amounts up to 6 or 7 and the series ends with an 8. Picture that on your mind.”

“A dick.” Johnny pointed out, as his face lit up as if he had a ‘Eureka!’ moment. Seriously, he really ought to be a genius when inebriated in inches of alcohol.

“Listen, not to hurt the little one but I have seen your dicks but it isn’t as large as 7 equal signs.” Donghyuck gave a glance at his crotch beneath his rounded glasses, before continuing to read it further, “Then you ramble off to some words like ass, another spam of eggplant emoji and then send some unsolicited dick pics, which I fear not I have deleted. Oh yeah…” Johnny tiptoed over the desk to take a peek but yet again, Donghyuck snatched the phone from his view, “Oh this is fun. You copy pasted a controversial theory you got from Facebook and said that you think they were on to something. It is a paragraph about pigs being potential aliens.”

Johnny slumped his shoulders, as he stared at his fidgeting fingers. Donghyuck heaved an exasperated sigh and slid his card through. A beep sounds resonated through the empty common space, while Johnny’s ears perked up.

“It’s okay. Go ahead.” Donghyuck said plainly, inclining his head towards the open gate, “Just don’t spam me with these things in the future. I have someone now and-I know most of the time these are just drunk texts but I might get into trouble if my phone goes on wrong hands.”

“Okay.” Johnny nodded his head fervently, “I get it. I won’t do it again. Thanks.”

Before Johnny could pass through the gates, he looked back once to meet Donghyuck’s glaring back at him through his curtain of purple hair. His hair was newly dyed, so the colour was still fresh and vibrant. It suited him but Johnny wouldn’t say it, unless he wanted to get some.

“What?”

“You know any Jung from HQ?”

“Jung from HQ?” He mulled for a second, humming under his breath, “Jung…doesn’t ring any bell. There is Sungchan but he works at the New York branch.”

“Oh. Okay. Thank you again.”

“Save it.”

\--- 

What laid in front of him was an empty free space, free work cubicles and rotating chairs left askew. Johnny sighed, as he sauntered towards his own posting, and took his place on his chair, which too was lugged on another end of the office. He quickly twirled around, and faced his desk, his hands fumbling to fix the contact cards on his table properly, as he stacked them neatly on one side. There was also that pile of manila which he had to revise through so he gathered them together and slapped them on the table lightly, so they would be aligned as he would place them on the file box.

Johnny was swamped with untouched work, which he couldn’t bother finishing the day before because he was feeling lazy. As often he did. He rifled through the pages carefully, although was going through a thick heap because he couldn’t afford reading up on it yesterday. Damn it! He cursed himself, before pulling out a manual from his computer; the manual being the text room he had with Taeil. It was the same as copying homework, as he could easily ask him what the pages and endless incoherent office jargon the pages entailed and fill up the forms accordingly.

The office was still empty of his colleagues, so he could cheat through peacefully without anyone peeking an eye on his monitor. His boss, Kun, was late although he always managed to come before anyone stepped a foot in the office grounds. Probably, he got some finally. His drunken antics were of another world, seriously. Last night was also their floor _get together_ , which Johnny could care less to attend.

Taeil succeeded his last text with another, explaining the paragraph Johnny was stuck on. Johnny quickly scribbled the answer in between the empty gaps, biting the end of his pen as Taeil went on to write the answer to another one. He did propose after their stealthy session, that Johnny could make the effort to join his department, and that way he could have more chance to be promoted to the HQ.

Johnny denied the offer swiftly as he had done for the last year. HQ were for all the sleep-deprived zombies, who had less of a life to indulge in crunching useless numbers and watch embarrassing pitches go down. A waste of time, but the amount of money made up for it easily. Johnny wasn’t that greedy, to be honest. He wanted to make something of his free time, like get drunk and listen to his curated playlist to no end. He was a lot apparently, according to Donghyuck.

Taeil spammed a bunch of cute stickers before he went offline, never to come back for the rest of the day. He probably switched off his phone, to concentrate on sucking up to his boss until the latter relented on giving him a promotion. See, that was the pain of working in Taeil’s department, you had to be shameless no matter what.

After slamming the plastic cover over his creased paper, showcasing how hard he worked in the last 1 hour compared to the last three days, he decided to give a twirl of the office break room, and grab some crisps to spend the rest of the 9-5. He was great with cramming, he had been doing it since high-school. No matter who said what, but that desk job was the best job he was blessed with.

Johnny wanted to drop by the front desk, and exchange some jibes over crumbles of a Potato Snack with Donghyuck. But, Donghyuck was probably pissed after letting him in for the nth time, with his card. Not because he sent him booty texts last night, he couldn’t seriously be raged over that.

He crept inside the break room softly, and cringed open the cupboard. Some of his colleagues were yet to come, so he snatched his favourite chips which belonged to some Mark he didn’t know he worked with. He was perhaps some newcomer, so he shrugged off the guiltiness before diving in the brimming salty treat.

“That’s mine.” He heard someone squeak behind him and when he skirted back, it was a shorty. With too small of a face, innocence drawn on to his face like a five-year-old, scruffy black locks fell over his thin eyebrow. Usually, Johnny didn’t take much note of how a person looked at first sight, but that time he couldn’t help because seriously, that guy looked like he belonged to a fifth grade than his own department.

Johnny mischievously shook the chip packet in the air, taking advantage of his height as he kept looking down at him.

“This one? Is your name written on it”

“Yeah-” he said a matter-of-factly, pointing at the name tag Johnny ripped off the packet earlier and discarded it on the ground,”-my name was written on it.”

“Doesn’t matter. I got this now, first.” Johnny retorted back childishly, “This is mine, now.”

“Okay, man.” The little guy waved, “You can have it. Just ask next time.”

He pulled open the packet and inched it towards the little guy, gesturing if he would like to eat with him. ‘Mark’ he finally remembered that was the name written on the chit, as he rested his hip against the counter with Mark sidling up to his side, while his head stood up to his shoulder.

“Sorry, I should introduce myself before we get too intimate.”

“What do you mean?” Mark asked, appalled. Johnny laughed it off, shaking his head.

“Intimate enough to share chips.” Johnny showed the open packet of chips, to which Mark nodded understandably. A small smile curved Mark’s lips.

“Ah-My name is Mark. I joined only recently and tend to work overtime, to get used to the load of work. What about you?”

“Johnny.” He took a piece of chip, and in between the audible eating sound filling in for the silence of the morning, he peeped out, “I have been here since forever. Although, I do not have any intention to move on from here. This is my home.”

“Seriously?” Mark asked, eagle-eyed, “Is this really your home? Like, do you sleep here at night?”

“What? No…”

“No, like my brother who works at HQ said that the office offers room for night stay for some. Is that true or was my brother just pissing?”

“Pissing, for sure. Like, they do have rooms for other people who come here after posting. Like Hendery, he used to work at Staten, joined us last month. He couldn’t obviously find an apartment right upon arrival so the night stay room works like a hotel. It has a census, though. A week or something like that. You must find an apartment before your arrival, which the office basically encourages or find one within a week.’ Mark hummed, bobbing his head before Johnny continued, “Who is your brother, by the way? Does he work here or did he base it off some hearsay?”

“He joined recently too. He works at the HQ. Jaehyun came earlier today, he had some meeting to attend to.” After some munching his own share, he noted, “Surprised, he didn’t try to sleep off on some pier, he tends to do that.”

“Well, that entails what working in HQ means. Hell and back.” Johnny tightened his lips, nudging the chip packet on to Mark’s hand, “Anyways, never heard of him.”

“Where are you sitting, by the way?” Mark questioned, taking a handful of chips and downed them in one bite. For a little man, he had a huge mouth. That kind of killed his appetite, so he turned down Mark’s offering of another handful.

“I sit beside Kun’s office. Yes, I do not call him boss because we basically graduated from the same class, same university and all that. So, I’ve known him since forever.”

“How come I never see you?”

“Because I am never here, Mark?”

“Oh.” Mark nodded thoughtfully, “Why are you never here? I mean, doesn’t Kun reprimand you for that?”

“He gives too much leeway to do that. Plus, since we are the same age, and it feels awkward for him to give me a dress down, he just leaves me with warnings. I still have these huge,” Johnny gestured vaguely with his hands,” pile of sticky notes from him, telling me to sit at my desk and do my work. I do my work but when I feel like it.”

“Isn’t that too much of a leeway?”

Johnny shrugged, “You, for one, ask too many questions. You should keep them to yourself.” Johnny started to inch away from Mark as he thought that working at his desk would be better than dillydallying with Monotonous Mark, “Drop by my desk, if you have any problem. I said that, only considering that you are new.”

“Appreciate it.”

Before Mark walked away, Johnny twirled back, fingers scratching his forehead, “What did you say your brother’s name was?”

“Jaehyun. Jung Jaehyun.”

Johnny turned around, his tongue rolled to the back of his mouth. Was it the one he saw in the lift that earlier morning? The one with whom he exchanged too many “I love you”s than he had exchanged with anyone, his entire fucking life.

“Jung?” Johnny repeated smoothly.

“Yeah.” Mark lighted up, realizing something, “You must be wondering why my surname is “Lee”. I didn’t plan on revealing so much about me in a matter of five minutes, but my brother and I are stepbrothers. Meaning, my mother married his dad after separating from my birth father.”

Johnny stopped him with a finger, “Okay. _TMI_ _,_ Mark.”

Mark gaped his mouth before closing it right after. Just at the right time, Johnny took notice of Hendery slithering through from Boss’ chamber to the filter, to fill up his bottle. He hollered behind him, and once Hendery saw him, a wide beam took place on his lips. Pushing the tap of the filter shut, he padded in front of them, shooting a glance behind Johnny’s shoulders on to Mark. Johnny followed his gaze, and reverted it back on Hendery, pushing his hands on his shoulders.

“You look good.” Johnny admitted a chuckle, “Anyway, let me introduce you to Mark. He’s new so you must, “Johnny led Hendery by the back towards Mark who stood there timidly, “treat and teach him well the ropes of what to do and what not. Also, nooks and crannies of the whole office space and how you can’t climb up to HQ without Doyoung’s orders.”

“I know Mark. He isn’t new. I met him last month.” Hendery said it so smoothly and casually, it didn’t leave Johnny a chance to be embarrassed, “Also, I heard Doyoung imposed a restraining order against you some time in the era of your relationship. Is it true?”

Johnny snorted, “No! We broke up like aeons ago, and like, the restraining order was a sham. I don’t know where you guys keep hearing this nonsense but I assure you this is not true.”

“Oh. Cool.” Hendery smiled foolishly before joining Mark by his side, taking a fistful of his chips “Hey, man. G’morning!”

“Oh, Johnny…I don’t think there was any rule to ask Doyoung, before going to HQ. You just have to ring Donghyuck up.” Mark said, eyeing Hendery in his hindsight. Hendery nodded understandably.

Johnny groaned, combing through his nape, “Yeah. I get it. I am the idiot.”

Hendery and Mark petered into a fit of snickers, to which Johnny comprehended those two were definitely pulling his leg throughout. It might have been Mark’s sweet revenge for taking his chips.

Johnny fled from the scene only to come face to face with Kun, to whom he tipped his invisible cap off to. Kun, remained stone-faced, obviously not amused. He never played along with his mischievous antics and it seemed that morning, he wasn’t going to. He used to mingle around with him during his school years, but that was when they both didn’t have a care of the world. But one of them seemed to.

Kun looked visibly tuckered out, as if he had a good night's sleep. Yes, Kun looked tired when he slept soundly and peacefully throughout the night, because he was an ill-famous nocturnal. When he pulled off an all-night and burnt the midnight oil at the office, he would look the freshest he had ever been. True to Johnny intuition, Kun might have got some action last night, resulting him being in that state. Action being, a few inches of alcohol and not a dick.

“Good morning, captain!” Johnny sang cheerily, before catching up to Kun’s rapid steps to his chamber.

“This is not a ship. This is a commercial office and I expect you at your desk.”

“Not a high school, either.”

“Just shut your mouth and your childishness and scram.”

“Why is everyone angry at me, today? Like, did I manage to piss all your minds off at the same moment?” Johnny whined, seriously thinking off making a list of the things he did wrong that day. Perhaps, his horoscope wasn’t good that day. He should attend to that and recheck.

“You manage to ruin everyone’s day, every day. Take a taste of your medicine.”

“Okay, I shouldn’t have replaced your water with vodka!” Johnny shouted before the door shunned him at the face. He whispered to himself, “Not.”

\---

“Doyoung.” Johnny tuned, as he caught the sight of the rigid man descending down the stairs, with a crapload of files balanced on his arm. He looked like he was struggling but Johnny knew, he wouldn’t accept any help either.

“Johnny. Nice to see you here.” The tone of the sentence remained plain and sarcastic, and his face unravelled another story.

“I was just going up. Are you going to visit Kun?”

“None of your business.” He hoisted the files up back in his arms, letting out a whimper, “Why are you-” Doyoung grunted again, “going to the HQ? You are not supposed to.”

“More like not allowed to.” Johnny rolled his eyes, “Anyway, I am going to steal some toilet papers from your W/R, okay? It suits my sensitive skin. You know, how it is.”

“Ew. Johnny. Move.” Doyoung weaved past, wearing a frown on his face. He was fighting with the number of manila files crammed in his small arms, and bony limbs that Johnny knew if he tripped over a step or something-which Johnny was sure he would-he would most probably channel all his anger on Kun. He wasn’t the one to resent ‘captain’s but more like the one who suck up to them, but Johnny could imagine Doyoung slamming the files on Kun’s table, and naming all the fault on Johnny.

Johnny quickly fished out his phone as he climbed the stairs one by one, snapping his neck from one moment to the next, watching Doyoung limp his way down.

“Donghyuck, thank god you picked up.” Johnny sighed, combing through his bangs reaching and ruffled the scruff of hair on his crown.

“Oh yeah, I didn't have anything else to do except pick up your phone. I could use you for an exchange for boredom.”

“Okay.” Johnny breathed out, “Doyoung is coming down and I am thinking he might die with the hoard of files he is carrying. He says he is doing the gym these days, but god knows what that means. So, could you be a good colleague and help him with it?”

“What do I get from it?”

“Are you asking for a reward for doing your job?”

“Okay, fine.” Donghyuck produced a lengthy groan, “I’ll do it. The fucker is here and he looks awful. Why did he have to carry so much?”

“I can imagine.” Johnny pulled the phone from his ears and shouted, “Okay, bye!”

Johnny watched the automatic slide open and close for multiple times, revealing a different colleague of his, coming out with a stack of papers and some on their phones. All of them wearing loose ties around their neck, somehow everyone was sporting a light blue shirt as if on purpose. Only Johnny didn’t get a memo, as he wore a dark raven shirt he bought from Armani. The only designer he owned. Everyone somehow looked the same, obviously perked up despite their resentment, as they tried their best to lug through the begrudging office hours. Johnny, frankly, couldn’t for heaven’s sake, remember how now ‘Jung Jaehyun’ looked like. Yes, he was horribly sleepy, halfway to purgatory, yet something about exchanging ‘love you’s with a stranger seemed intimate.

He wanted to test if it felt the same when they were both awake and conscious. _Music and all that_ , absent.

With the first courageous and heavy step towards the expensive shutting doors, he felt as if it had been a while since he was there. Actually, it had a few months and he wouldn’t enter HQ unless he had important errands to take care of. Johnny, right then, was faced with something he initiated and something he wanted to take care of by himself.

He entered the HQ ground, the strong and breezy air-conditioner hitting his face like a chilly slap, brushing his bangs back like a gel. He quickly pulled the strands out, and arranged it neatly on his forehead with some pulls and puff here and there. He noticed Jaemin peeking through the throng of disturbed chairs and askew tables sprawled out here and there. Johnny was horrified.

Jaemin had a new colour streaming through his hair again, blurring through the shade of blue and pink. Johnny, was surprised at the ability of his immortal strands, and how it didn’t break off like his did. When he bleached his hair last summer, it bled and shed, like he had a dog and he needed urgent grooming. Only if Jaemin could take on the effort of being the idols he saw on TV, it wouldn’t have gone to waste.

“Jaemin, hey!” Jaemin craned up from the paper he was studying as Johnny made his way, undulating through the obstacles of chairs and files lying on the ground, “It sure looks like a battlefield here. Just the image I love and appreciate.”

“I can’t tell if you are being sarcastic.” Jaemin grinned before returning back to his papers.

“You know, I wanted to meet someone here. I think he is new, came about a month ago, if I am correct.”

“Your new prey.”

“No…” Johnny scoffed, “Psh. No. I am not the philanderer you think I am.”

“Well, Doyoung said-”

“I don’t know what propaganda Doyoung feeds every single prick here but I am not the unhinged person he made out of me to all of you.”

“Okay. What’s the purpose here?” Jaemin sighed, and finally tipped his face up to look at him properly.

“Yes, so I am looking for a ‘Jung’.”

Jaemin chuckled, bobbing his head as he did so.

“Donghyuck did say you would be here with that. He told me to make a run for it. But here I am…” Jaemin said in between chuckles, “But if you want to know that badly, he is here but not quite here. He fell asleep during a pitch meeting-”

Johnny sucked in through his teeth and let out an ‘oh’ under his breath.

“Yeah, it was bad. So, he is in there, “Jaemin pointed out to the closed door of their own floor manager, “getting his ass beat by the boss. Not sexually of course.”

“Ah, well then I will talk to him later.”

“Want me to pass him a note?” Jaemin prompted, picking out a pen from his holder and perched over a blue sticky note.

“No, I think I will talk to him later.”

Jaemin crumbled the blue sticky note under his fist and hurled it over at some corner. As Johnny previously said, he was horrified. He morphed his face as he followed his way out, thinking as much as the HQ was a battlefield, the ones working here were rightfully trained men. It was so much better at his floor, no shit.

He rushed back down, with a new fear of the HQ embed in his chest. Something was itching him from inside, he couldn’t scratch it to comfort. He didn’t use the lift, but the simple stairs because he thought he should put the posters hung up on the doors of the lift to use. The posters warned about, ‘health’ and how walking the stairs had its benefits. Something akin to a warning cast on a cigarette packet. It was useless but somehow not to Johnny.

Meeting eyes with Donghyuck, who was laid on the desk with his listless arms hanging around the corners, claimed that he was dead weight. Johnny gingerly tip-toed towards him softly, to see he really wander off to dreamland. But before he could he could poke him on the lazed out and possibly numb arms,

“What?” he said dully, looking up to him with half-closed eyelids.

“You know, you can either clock out now or sleep here and be caught doing so by Kun.”

“Are you going to tell on me?” He said, reclining back, drawing his arms from the desk slowly. He stretched the knots held in his elbows, and Johnny watched it happen, unimpressed.

“No. But…”

“I knew there was something you wanted to ask me. It’s written all over your damn face.” Donghyuck accused, wandering his little fingers close to his face. Johnny yanked his hand to the side roughly.

“Why didn’t you tell me that someone named, ‘Jung Jaehyun’ existed?”

“I didn’t want him to be traumatized by you in the first month he is here. Plus, Doyoung gave him an earful about you so I think he knows what type of guy you are.”

“What type of guy am I?”

“Philanderer. Characterless. Not much of a killjoy, I would say. Tad bit fun.”

“Okay. I see him if I see him. Don’t do anything that can devastate this potential new thing. I am not sure of it, though. I only exchanged some ‘I love you’s with him.” Johnny shrugged, knocking his knuckles on the desk, as he readied himself to leave.

“You did what?”

Johnny proceeded to walk from the desk, “Bye!”

Donghyuck hollered from the back, “Hey! I didn’t ask for a cliffhanger!”

Johnny signed off with a two-fingered gun, shaking it lightly in the air.

Johnny returned to his desk, and flopped over the new stack of papers, hogging the prior empty space. He gave out a ragged exhale, picking himself up after five minutes of chanting to himself the chants and mantras he memorized from a podcast. He felt a soft tap on his shoulders and he twirled his chair to face the person who asked for him.

It was Mark, looking at him with a snarky expression.

“Hey.”

“Hi.” Johnny snivelled up, rubbing at his nose with his finger.

“You tired?”

“Kind of.” Johnny shrugged, “I just came from the HQ, wanted to meet someone there. Except he wasn’t there, ergo, I wasted my fucking time.”

“Oh.” Mark pointed at Kun’s office, “I saw Doyoung a few minutes earlier. Came along with Donghyuck, carrying this huge stack of files. Didn’t come out till now.”

“Ah. Probably indulging themselves in good ol’ drinking sesh.”

“You can drink in office hours?”

“Just a pint or two.”

Mark led himself to the empty post beside Johnny, and wheeled the seat close to him.

“Would you like to go for brunch?” Mark asked cautiously, almost whispering under the whirr of the air-conditioner, “It will be just me and Jaehyun. And you, if you are willing.”

“Okay.’ Johnny let out a grave exhale. That was his only chance to meet Jaehyun, and mull over it would be worth it, pursuing after him. The last time, he went after someone was years ago, and that was only Doyoung, that he really sought after. It really did feel like forever, that Doyoung and he were together.

“Cool. I will text you-wait, on a second though-I don’t have your phone number.”

Johnny urged to have Mark’s phone in his hand, as he later on crunched his numbers on the blank screen. Under the name, ‘Johnny’ he saved it carefully, providing his private number. He didn’t know why but he thought he could go on lengths with that little guy.

“I’ll be there.” Johnny grinned, lending the phone back to Mark.

“Uh-I kind of told Jaehyun that I made a friend here and he was genuinely elated and wanted to meet you.”

“You are not making it any better for me.” Johnny joked as he swivelled back to his desk, pretending to write something on the papers, “Also, Mark, this isn’t high school.”

“Sorry,” Mark replied sheepishly.

\---

Johnny entered the cafe, after hefty minutes of wandering among the square, lost and bridled with anxiousness. Mark had apparently messaged him the wrong address, resulting him to make useless rounds around the square, which washed away quite a bit of his lunchtime. He wasn’t sure if he would be able to have a bite, and swoon over then-fully conscious Jaehyun. It wouldn’t be much of a revelation from the time he saw him at the lift that morning, but he sure wished him to be different. He lost all his knack for asking someone out, hadn’t he?

Just an experiment, he assured himself, as he screeched the door open and was welcomed to a reek of burnt coffee beans. There were empty seats lined up at the counter, with a few filled up window booths, one owned up by the back view of Jaehyun, perched over the table. Johnny recognized the fluff of brunette hair sticking up all directions, along with the dark coat, hanging over his visible white collar.

Johnny took a deep breath in; he could do it, he convinced himself fruitlessly.

Little did he know, he could break all his grit away in the first minute.

“Hi.” Johnny leaned over from behind Jaehyun’s back, as he made his way to the opposite.

“Johnny, right? Mark told me you were coming.” From up close, Jaehyun didn’t look like an ordinary human being. He was pretty, very much so, with his unrealistic pale skin and broad shoulder and tightened sleeves over his biceps. Johnny didn’t mean to notice those details, it just happened.

“Um…where is he?”

“Trip to the washroom.” He flicked his somewhere, “He’ll be back. Unless, it's indigestion, then we are stuck here for a long time.”

“Don’t. I haven't eaten yet and I don’t want what's left of my appetite to die down.”

Jaehyun chuckled, before taking a sip of his own coffee.

“Can I ask you something?” Johnny prompted, sliding along the desk, getting slowly closer to Jaehyun.

“Sure.”

“I love you.”


	2. One Lie, Two Truths

“Wait-” Jaehyun couldn’t help but wheeze, “-Is this some kind of-”

“No.” Johnny threw his hands up in defence, “I can explain.” Johnny couldn’t comprehend how stupid he must have looked. But, as he said, all in. Jaehyun stifled his outburst of uproarious laughter with the back of his hand as he waited for Johnny to explain.

“I-this is kind of an elaborate experiment-a joke, shortly. A bet I have with my friend, on how many people would reply with the supposed answer. We had some ‘Fuck you’s to date.” Jaehyun nodded and Johnny sighed in relief to himself, because for a nick of time, he could have been caught red-handed.. Caught with what? He didn’t know, exactly.

“I was caught off-guard, really.”

Johnny was then-sure that he got ahead of himself, a bit. The man in front of him wasn't some sleepy cute asshole he met at the lift, but more handsome, dashing but a bigger asshole. He was awake and aware of what he would say or do. Laugh at his jokes, copy his gestures and not drowse halfway through it. He was cute, and Johnny was oh-so-going to get him.

“You know,” Johnny curled the straw in the ice crushed green tea smoothie that he ordered a minute ago, “I met you before.”

“You did?” Jaehyun cried in genuine surprise, the coffee under his palm cooled and bland.

“Oh yeah.” A tip of Johnny’s lips went up, “In the lift this morning. I mean I never saw you or Mark-I think he is on way to indigestion, isn’t it?”

“Very.” Jaehyun chuckled, dipping his chin on the heel of his wrist, and rested it there. The cafe was almost empty since lunchtime was on the verge of ending but Johnny didn’t care for it. A chance was presented right in front of him-literally-and he would be a fool not to have a hot bite of it.

“So, what was I saying?” Johnny took a sip of his smoothie before continuing, “I never saw you or Mark before-like I don’t keep tabs of temps or interns for that case. All in all, I never knew you two joined and even if I did-no offense-I wouldn’t have cared for it.”

“Rude,” Jaehyun replied, abashed.

“Well, I don’t mean it that way.” Johnny took a deep suck of the smoothie, freezing his cavern with the chunks of ice. His mouth felt numb for then, “Your…Did you meet Kun yet?”

“I did during the appraisal.”

“He is quite the striker, isn’t he?”

“Kind of. Taeyong made much more of an impression on me. Who would have thought he could talk like that with that innocent face? He has the face of a kid. 5-year-old kid.”

Just then, Johnny remembered how Jaehyun could be reprimanded by Taeyong earlier in the morning and he laughed to himself, as he knew exactly why Jaehyun was saying that. Jaehyun continued on rambling about the happenings of the appraisal, and how much he had to encapsulate the last for years of his post-graduate and his work ethics, financial stems and whatnot in the matter of 15, and how mentally draining it was. With a pat of comfort, Johnny said he got his way straight in, perks and all.

“Bastard.” Jaehyun wrapped his hand around his neck, before trailing it down along his torso. He yawned, and twisted his torso a bit, before slumping over the table.

“You can’t call someone that, judging on how much luck he has gotten under his sleeve.”

“I have got a pig’s luck and two left legs.”

“Matters on what type of pig. Some pigs do lead a great life.”

“The bad kind.” Jaehyun heaved, his eyes fixed on the corner of the napkin he was playing with, “You know, I met many people at the office, but you really seem-not to be cheesy-but you seem nice. Friendly.”

“By many people, you mean Donghyuck.”

With a roll of his eyes, Jaehyun fell back on his chair, “He is a goddamn nightmare.”

After a while or so, Johnny could hear the door to the W/R swinging close. The grind of the coffee bean stopped abruptly as Mark hurried his way towards their table. Jaehyun hung one of his arms over the booth’s head, as he gestured to Mark with a wave to come over to his table. Seeing that as a safety signal, Mark jogged over. He most probably felt the danger of utmost chagrin was annihilated and that Johnny might not make fun of him, of whatever Jaehyun had babbled up to him. Johnny lived up to his expectation, for Mark’s sake.

“Had a really bad case of a stomach worm.”

“You two really started your lunch without me, huh?” Johnny quipped, patting the empty seat beside him as he wiggled inside, and squeezed along the foggy window, “That really doesn’t sound like a cool lunch invite. I am kind of glad that the sandwich did a number on you.”

Mark noticed the empty glass in front of him, as the remaining of the green hung on the sides of it. He pointed at it accusingly, and screeched that the green smoothie did count as lunch. Johnny relented, and said that he was indeed full, and ready to go back.

As benevolent as the two came across, they seemed to uplift the bar by paying on Johnny’s behalf. Johnny wanted to pay too, but his pockets weren’t actually brimming with cash since he left his wallet back home. Wrapping his arm around Mark’s shoulders, he pulled him close, giving him a friendly pat on his chest, thanking him. Not to be blatantly gay, but Mark was cute. As cute as younger brothers would come across. Utterly out of place, rambling about unadulterated and incomprehensible millennium stuff, Mark showed off to be anything but boring.

With a wave, Johnny bid them goodbye and that if time would come, they would meet at the office.

“Why, aren’t you coming with us?” Jaehyun questioned, as the lot left the store, leaving the door with a slam.

“I need a quick puff.” He gestured to blowing an invisible cigarette with his fingers, “I need some to collect myself, before returning to files hogging my desk.”

“Oh.” if Johnny wasn’t kidding himself, Jaehyun looked a bit disappointed. Mark adjoined Jaehyun by his side and pulled him in the other direction, hopping on his boots, with vehement turns of his wrist. Jaehyun imitated Mark’s acts too, but had a smile, unlike anyone Johnny had ever seen.

“See you then.” But his eyes never left the profile of Jaehyun, as the latter kept on talking with Mark, who enthusiastically answered him. The last time he felt like that, he didn’t remember. He realized he desperately needed to borrow Taeil’s California Girls playlist and spend alone time at the beach, so he would better understand why his heart was booming even though there was no music.

\---

“Well, he turned out not to be an asshole Doyoung said he was.” Jaehyun sighed, as he could see the throng of workers concentrating as they neared the lobby. Mark hummed in agreement, before petering into chuckles.

“I think they have this unresolved vehemence and grudge in between them, and they are trying to grab anyone in their team. Johnny seems less interested while Doyoung is just gruelling through.”

“Well, I’m glad he turned out to be different” Jaehyun shrugged, “He’s cool, I think.”

“Wait until, Doyoung hears about this.” Mark blew an exasperated as he winded himself through the rotating doors, “He’s not going to have a field day.”

Jaehyun made a dismissive snort, “Like I care.” As he proceeded towards the lift, weaving his way through the bunch of suits and smelly reek of sweat rubbing against, he could make out Jaemin far along the main reception, talking up someone. He was all grins and smiles, a face he seldom saw. He wanted to say hi, but was pushed to the far left, right in the direction of the lift. Although, that was where he intended to go, he was still itching to see who bought that huge toothy grin on Jaemin’s usual deadpan face.

Squeezed within his colleagues was the last place he wanted to be, their briefcases always managed to poke in the thighs and sometimes at his nether regions, which was a pain nonetheless. He turned his neck to spot someone he knew from HQ, and luckily or not, he found Doyoung, cornered with a disgusted scrunch painted on his face.

When they met eyes, Jaehyun mouthed, “Hey.”

Doyoung grunted, pushing to the side, so that Jaehyun could step back and sidle up beside him. One of the numerous people, dropped off at the floor Johnny was working at. Jaehyun made sure to steal a peek of it through the thick heads, obscuring the view.

“Where were you?” Doyoung harshly whispered, “I thought we were supposed to have lunch together.”

“Sorry, Mark invited me at the last minute and I just couldn’t turn it down.”

“It’s okay, besides I had this awful lunch meeting with Taeyong. I half-choked and half-listened. Lunch and meeting never goes well together.” Doyoung sighed, as his eyebrows cocked up at the floors still left to pass, “God, if I ever resign from this job for another one, I am going to a floor that isn’t like a thousand floors to heaven.”

“If it was a thousand floors, for sure, you aren’t going to heaven.”

“Makes sense,” Doyoung growled out loud, letting a few people up front to turn heads.

“You want to grab beer today?” Jaehyun trailed out, mulling on the offer for a while. He thought he needed to get the ‘Johnny Stuff’ straightened out before he dug deep.

Doyoung knocked his head against the hard wall of the lift, before lolling his head to the side, “You know what, why not? These days, I’ve been so swamped with the upcoming appraisals. There is this big pitch today about buying unused apartments and renovating it to a high-class hotel or something. I haven’t done much reading on it but Taeyong is planning on investing in it.”

“Jury’s still out on his decision right?” The lift dinged on their floor as they manoeuvred their way through the crowd, to their lift, each walking side to side so as to carry their conversation, “Was the email that convincing? I mean we are talking about Idaho here, was it Idaho?”

“Yeah, Idaho.”

“Do people even buy real estate there?”

The doors to the HQ slide open and they pad themselves across the busy, shabby interior, to their own desk which was conveniently placed opposite of each other. Doyoung groaned as he made himself comfortable on the rotating seat, as his legs flipped over the table.

“The real question is, do people even live there?” He prompted a bowl of cherries he somehow had inside his table, which Jaehyun looked at with a hardened face. Unsuccessfully, Doyoung hid the bowl under his table, as he plucked out a cherry or two and gobbled it.

“I need all the energy I can scrape for. Plus, what evoked the beer invitation?”

_ Was he harbouring that question for the whole lift ride _ , Jaehyun thought, clearing his throat.

“Um…just a casual hang.”

“Hang?” Doyoung dropped his legs back to the floor and tugged his chair close, “Is this a word the young people use? I will make sure to prepare myself accordingly.”

“Don’t trouble yourself.” Jaehyun then contemplated for the rest of his hours, if he had made the right decision to invite Doyoung at all. And that too, to talk about Johnny and all that shenanigans.

\---

“God…did you mean a pub?” Doyoung lamented as he crippled himself in a tight-fitting suit, with an actually ironed shirt. It wasn’t his day clothes, with his ever so flower patterned blue shirt made efforts to stay tucked inside his pants. Jaehyun as usual was wearing his loose white shirt from the morning, hair all ruffled and messy on his head, like a bird’s nest. A beer bottle in hand, picture perfect. He literally looked like overly exaggerated drunk guys in sitcoms.

While Doyoung, his hair slicked to the sides and faded blue highlights glinted on his head, shifted on the high-rise vinyl chair along the counter. He ordered for a smooth whiskey.

“Obviously, I meant a pub. Isn’t that how a ‘hang’ goes?” Jaehyun slurred, the words surfing of the tip of intoxicated tongue.

“I don’t want to be too inebriated. I still have that meeting tomorrow.”

“Wasn’t that supposed to be today? You were all in over your head with that.”

“Taeyong postponed it without even consulting me.”

“That’s Taeyong for you.” Jaehyun cheered to that, with the half-emptied beer bottle in his hand.

“You wanted to talk about …or did you just want to wallow in your sorrows or something?” Doyoung thanked the bartender for the glass and took a sip of the whiskey, “I am assuming that is what you do in a pub. The last time I went was with Johnny on our last date and we fought that day too.”

“Well, on that topic, I wanted to ask something about…” Jaehyun took a deep breath as Doyoung zeroed his concentration on him, “…You…Why did you and Johnny break up? Believe it or not, it is still a buzz among people. Like a celebrity couple you two are.”

Actually, nobody gave a fuck except perhaps Jaehyun, since he had to know.

With a flip of Doyoung’s fingers, he ordered another row of whiskey and that time, it was the trashy ones. He specifically reminded the bartender to serve him, “Something that can get me drunk off my ass.” Jaehyun believed he was already drunk, by the time the new drinks rolled out.

“So…I must warn you, this isn’t a YA novel unfolding in front of you.”

“I don’t read YA. I read Wattpad.” Jaehyun confessed.

“That is even worse.” Doyoung waved off, taking a big shot of the whiskey in one breath, “So…Johnny and I were dating for like 5 years or so and…”

“Fast forward.”

“Fast forward?” Doyoung winded his hand in a fast forwarding gesture, while Jaehyun kept his eyes on his empty beer, “…the applications came for the spots here at the office. We were pretty excited and decided to apply straight for HQ. Big checks and all. I heard Kun, who was my senior at grad school, was already at a higher position so I thought they would cut some slack for us, you know, how friendship discounts work.”

“They didn’t?”

“Obviously they didn’t.” Doyoung gave out a whine of disdain before moving on, “I got admitted to HQ but Johnny didn’t. But I went to my knees, and literally begged Kun to give Johnny a position. After some hee-haw, Kun pulled some strings and took Johnny under his wings. I don’t know if it was then the hate for the HQ started. I used to come home late, work overtime since I was new there and HQ is always swamped with work. I mean, you know right?”

Jaehyun nodded understandably, taking a huge gulp of Doyoung’s whiskey.

“Johnny, on the other hand, didn’t tell me he was getting upset with my altered daily regime. I was coming home like at 4 am and I know that must have angered Johnny somehow. He-he didn’t say anything. Suddenly, after a week or two, he invited me to some pub and told me that he had to talk. I knew ‘talk’ wasn’t to be a casual one because he sounded sombre in the phone call. I didn’t see him for months on end because of work, and when I did…” Doyoung started crying at some point, Jaehyun forgot to keep track, “…he simply said he wanted to break up. I was caught off-guard so much that for like minutes I couldn’t believe it. 5 years…all went to drain because he couldn’t wait another month or two for me to get used to it. Well, I am sorry I got the job, asshole!”

“Are you okay?” Jaehyun rambled out when he noticed how tightly Doyoung was gripping the whiskey glass. It was not that he was scared he might break it under the immense strength of his sudden rage but…he was just looking out for Doyoung. He was not sure if he did the best thing, asking Doyoung to unwind in front of him about Johnny. It seemed, even if it was years, Johnny was still a sore spot.

“No...Jaehyun. I ain’t got an ass on my dick nor a dick in my ass. I am not okay.” Doyoung sniffled up, “I thought I would stand up stronger, get this brothel of guys running after me because I was finally single. But, no. Johnny is the one getting guys trailing behind him like it's a Jewish dance circle.”

Jaehyun winced in response, because he caught himself being one of the men participating in the dance circle. He didn’t go to any Bar Mitzvah, to actually experience if it was of any fun.

“But I think he is a nice guy…” Doyoung pipped suddenly, “He really made me feel special for the few years I was with him. He is not a very touchy-feely person so I don't know what I was expecting from him. I am not sure what I’m trying to achieve by bad-mouthing him…it makes me feel good for a moment I guess. That maybe if everyone hates him, I don’t have to feel guilty for hating him anymore.”

_ Safe _ , was all Jaehyun could think when Doyoung muttered those words.

“That’s a sick thing you got in your head…” Jaehyun squeezed Doyoung’s arms, as the latter laid his head on the birch wood of the counter, “…and it doesn’t work like that. Anyway, I’ll call Mark because he is still at the office and he can pick us up after he clocks out. Okay?”

“Okay. Okay.”

\---

“You know, Jaehyun and Doyoung got shit-faced last night.” Johnny and Mark met at the commonplace, set in between two commercial buildings the office owned. To be honest, Johnny really didn’t know how could the company afford that place, the gardens, stone set on the wooden planks like it was a seat from a LA mansion or the freaking canteen they had downstairs. It cost a shit-ton of money for sure.

Right then, under the stretched clear sky, with no clear purpose, Mark called him downstairs for a coffee and some chat. It was time Johnny learned how to rub elbows with people in the office, or else he would look like a depressed anti-socialist that didn’t know how to play beer pong. He was really good at that, perhaps might be the only thing he was good at.

“I could get behind that.” Johnny shrugged before adding, “Except, I am on the clock today and I can’t drink unless it's Friday. I made up a whole timetable and schedule for that. My drinking habits were getting worse.”

“Well, I can’t really relate to that,” Mark said sheepishly. The coffee cup was obviously getting cold under his hold, and Johnny thought grabbing a coffee was perhaps only an excuse to pull Johnny there. It had only been a day they had met, and he couldn’t believe how close Mark had got to him.

Johnny couldn’t help but point at Mark’s untouched drink, “You going to drink that?”

“No. Not really. I only bought this so that I could chat here with you.” Mark laughed, showing off the misspelt name on the cup. It said, Morl, and Johnny remarked, it would be shit to have a name like Morl.

“I am Morl for today, and man…does that feel shitty.”

\---

Jaehyun had his legs raised high on the table, pulling his chair close before pushing it far with the table as leverage. He was reading up on the pitch meeting, and the suited men that were supposed to come today from some unrecognizable town, seemed like an asshole. At least, from the encapsulated preview on their email. Doyoung was supposed to deal with it, as he said it was a huge deal for Taeyong, but at the end, it was delegated to Jaehyun because someone ran down with a severe hangover headache.

But Doyoung still came, although tired and out of it, slumped over the table with his head slotted in his arms’ burrows. Jaemin came suit and joined Jaehyun at the right, placing his sling bag and other paraphernalia, which included a huge pink plushie up on the table. True to Jaehyun’s memory, he never saw Jaemin blatantly carrying a pink teddy bear, and showing it off to his colleagues like it’s a kink he should be proud of. So Jaehyun couldn’t help but ask,

“Yours?” Jaehyun picked up one of the lazy, soft, limbs of the bear and put it down as soon as that, with an indistinct expression painted on his face. Well, Jaemin took offence in that.

“Why?” Jaemin asked defensively, “What’s wrong with it?”

“Nothing.” Jaehyun’s expression betrayed him because he looked like he was disgusted. That was what always happened, Jaehyun always looked crossed for some reason.

“Anyway,” Jaehyun shrugged, as Doyoung suddenly groaned from his post. Probably, his headache got the better of him. Yesterday was a nightmare, with Doyoung laggardly hanging on to him like a Koala, slurring and singing at the top of his voice, as the bystanders ogled at their drunken antics weirdly. Until, Mark came from work to actually save them from embarrassing themselves even further.

“Well, last night, Doyoung and I got shit wasted.” Jaemin drew an expression which said he was listening attentively, ‘And-listen what Doyoung said-I think he had about two? Or three? glasses of whiskey down and he said-exactly-a reenactment of what he said, really.” Jaehyun readied himself to act it out, starting from imitating how slurred Doyoung’s speech was and how body swayed from side to side, “So he was like, man, I need a dick in my ass or an ass on my dick!”

“Wow.” Jaemin clapped, catching Doyoung to lift his head from his arm and shoot out a flipped finger at Jaehyun. With a smile, Jaehyun sent Doyoung slotting his head right back into a makeshift pillow.

“Yeah. Pretty sick, right? I was like, I need to write this down.”

“I volunteer.” Jaemin snickered, hanging his hand in the air, as if asking for permission for a visit to the W/R.

“And I refuse.” Lips pulled to the side, twitching, Doyoung rose up from his initial position to pull his elbows above his head, “Jaemin, I have this mega headache, like a damn tornado inside my fucking head and I do not need you to step into it. Plus, you have the other guy, I want to say, Jeno, fucking you.”

Now Jaehyun was the one totally caught in a hidden-cam surprise. No wonder, Jaemin was making those flirtatious faces at the front desk the other day, Jaehyun never knew it would be Jeno to be on the shift. On his defence, he didn’t know Jaemin or Jeno that well either, to be immediately informed of their trysts and what not but still…Doyoung did. Out of all the people in their office, Doyoung. The one who couldn’t keep their lips sealed about his ex and their dating details.

“How come I don't know about this?” Jaehyun asked, offended.

“Nobody does.” Jaemin feigned innocence, letting his eyes scan over the crowd beside their posts before continuing, “Doyoung happened upon it. Also, I’m not going to tout about how I am dating like the hottest guy in the office and how he is fucking me every night. Like, I’m not this guy.” Jaemin said, as he so obviously pointed out to Doyoung.

“What do you mean, ‘this guy’?”

Since everyone was coining their hilarious endeavours, Jaehyun laughed out and rolled off an irresponsible remark, that he didn’t think two times about, “You know, I had like the weirdest day yesterday. Getting drunk with Doyoung, which I say is a privilege because I never saw this guy wasted. Another thing, I met up with Johnny yesterday.”

“You never thought to mention this to me?” Doyoung quipped up, before Jaemin shushed him down with a finger on his lips.

“It was a casual lunch with Mark and Johnny. And you know, the first thing he says to me is-wait till you hear it- ‘I love you’.” Jaehyun continued chuckling although no one joined in, and left an awkward silence which Jaehyun picked on sooner than later, “What? He said it was a bet with his friend.”

“You think he has any friends? At least, with how successful Doyoung hate campaign was,” said Jaemin softly, trying to assuage the active volcano Doyoung was turning in, staring at him eerily with a crimson face.

“It isn’t that bad, is it?”

\--- 

Johnny had been elbows deep into that new load of work, Kun had slammed on his table 5 minutes prior. There were those three tender he had to go through, and either of them didn’t strike as fun as Johnny wanted them to be. After all, it was paperwork, and Kun had thought out of all the hard working white-collar workers there were crowding in the floor, it was Johnny’s turn to riffle through it.

The night was settling outside, as presented from the dark background reels from the ceiling to floor windows. Johnny continued scribbling on the paper, clicking off the terms highlighted in the computer before returning back to writing again. That went on for the latter 40 minutes, he hung back despite his office hours ending and it way past his bar time. He wondered if the bartender on the other side had been waiting, as if he had gotten tired of serving customers beers and peanuts.

Slinging back on his easy chair, he mulled on nothing in particular, playing with a crumpled piece of paper on his desk. Mark bid goodbye, after his share ended right after the 1-hour mark tapping Johnny on the shoulders, diverting his eyes from the crumpled paper ball. Johnny grinned, and saluted his fingers away, before driving back his tired eyes on the last case file. He didn't know why he was aimlessly lounging there at the office. There were better things to do right? Like getting drunk off your ass, and not think about work.

As the people singled him out in the office, light flickered off and chairs yet again strayed here and there, Johnny had finished signing the last bit of the case off. With a click or two, he switched the monitor off but not without messaging Taeil a goodbye, since the latter would be working overtime at his part of premises. Johnny cheered inside, snapping the side bag on his bag as he traipsed out, remembering to lock the doors behind him.

Once he turned around in the direction of the lift, plunging his keys in the front pocket of his bag, he could make out someone standing in front of the lift, although facing him. A flap of hand as the person seemed to greet him, but since the awfully dim to even distinguish the features except a sturdy silhouette.

“Hi?” Johnny called out, praying that the shadow would turn out anything human but a hallucination because of how fried his brain was after working on the files.

“Hi.”

Johnny swore, upon that tone, his heart climbed up to his mouth and he couldn’t gulp it back in.

“Aren’t you supposed to go back with Mark?” Johnny was still spouting into the darkness, before only the glumness cleared out as he reached the lights of the elevator.

Jaehyun, as if mirroring him, had his hair roughly tousled, as he had tried to tear his locks out. Eyes drowned in the hollowness of his eye sockets, and a lopsided smile went along with his overall worn-out image. Yet, somehow he looked unbelievably handsome. Like he had woken up from the bed in the morning, but in a cute and sexy way.

“Mark left earlier. His shift ended and he said he had some things to take care off. So, I told him not to wait for me.”

“Ah…figures.” Johnny clicked his tongue before taking a deep breath and saying, “You want to grab a drink or something? I have a bar close by which I frequent upon-” Johnny chuckled awkwardly, itching his chin, “-Not to come off as a douche. But…you know, since I am heading that way, would you like to come? I could use some company.”

“Why the hell not?”

\---

But rather than a rundown bar, Johnny settled with a diner just a few blocks. For his own sake; he didn’t want to destroy the ample of decent impressions he made on Jaehyun. Jaehyun was a great guy and he didn’t want him to be utterly traumatized by what drunk Johnny brought hither on earth. Perhaps, Jaehyun on the other hand was also prescient of what a swing or two of alcohol could do to a sober man, so he agreed to grab a burger and call it a night.

Johnny twisted the door open to a sombre looking diner, with little to no guests. It said, diner usually brought all hawks, hooligans and other hobos to the yard but the cafe was on the brink of being shelved for the rest of night. The window booths were free of occupation, while one lazy worker there scrubbed away time by humming under his breath, and swiping his wet broom left to right under the dim hanging bulb. Now, that the landscape presented itself like that, Johnny wasn’t as ebullient to spend another second there. However, he had forgotten that Jaehyun was right behind peeking over his shoulder and only at that time, Johnny thought how having a towering height of 6ft or more was indeed a blessing.

“You sure?” Johnny glanced over his shoulder, meeting Jaehyun’s eyes to which the latter subtly nodded his head.

“Okay, your call.” Shrugging, Johnny made way for Jaehyun to squeeze himself, and didn’t drive himself from the doorjamb. He liked the close proximity Jaehyun came to his chest, he could feel the toughness of his built physique and as Jaehyun continued wiggling away from the door, Johnny could feel his hands itch to feel him a second more. But then again, he might have been tired to have riddling horniness infesting on him

Jaehyun found sanctuary in the far right of the cafe, where the blinds were pulled and a light was fused of the two, giving it a shabby nature. Johnny, coughing at his poor choice, made himself comfortable among the chipped away leather of the seat and tattered table clothing. Someone at some moment, came up, clicked her pen and took the order as Jaehyun verbalized it for them looking at their laminated menu. Johnny still didn’t have anything to articulate, because he knew they were then truly alone and Mark wasn’t running late, battling with his indigestion.

Along the way, after 5 minutes, Jaehyun hunched over the table and flickered his eyes at Johnny.

“Want to play two truths and a lie?”

“Listen, I-” Johnny saw Jaehyun’s lit up face on the wary way of a frown, so he held himself back and entertained the idea, “Fine! You first.”

“I can’t hold alcohol very well and I get easily drunk. Mark is my stepbrother and not a real one. I am not from here.”

See, Johnny wasn’t keen on the idea of throwing games at each other until they both got tired, and it would have started  _ yet again _ another awkward situation, which would have been less awkward if they had tackled it from before. Small talk was not his forte. But then again, Johnny had developed a small crush on the person sitting in front of him so he gave up revoking the game and played along.

“I can’t tolerate alcohol very well. That one is a lie.” Johnny pointed before summoning the waiter to bring him a glass of water. He cleared his throat before continuing, “Mark told me before I actually met you, that you guys were brothers so that solved it by itself. Last one, I am not actually sure but I guess…I don't know.”

“Well, there is Mark and his blabbering mouth. But, kudos to you for figuring out that I am not from New York but actually, I am from South Korea. I was born there, stayed close to 4 years before I came to New York, and lived with my parents. Until they got separated of course, and my mother got remarried, and I moved to live with Mark and yadda, yadda…”

“Okay. Cool.” The waiter eventually served a cold glass of water, of which Johnny took a long swig and calmed his nerves.

“So, your turn.”

“Oh, God.” Johnny face-palmed, rubbing circles on his cheekbones before finally gathering his git to continue, “Okay. So…I am also not from here. I like drinking myself to 4 am and drunk texting my friends. I hate music.”

Jaehyun mulled on that, scratching his chin as he did so. The order arrived, in the meanwhile, and the waitress slid the plates from the tray on the table. She then slammed two long shots of draft beer, which Johnny was happy to see. Burgers cuddled to the sides and pickles were spewed all over the plate, which wasn’t necessarily an appetizing presentation but Johnny settled with whatever he could have his hands on.

“While you think, I will have a bite of this very greasy burger.”

“Go ahead.” Jaehyun nudged one of the two plates in front of him, and Johnny quickly tore off the side of the burger. It was obviously underwhelming, flavour was nada and the burgers were soaked in excess oil. The pickles were assumed to be no-go too. But that was what a possibly a diner, most probably going under, could allow, so Johnny gobbled it in.

Jaehyun clicked his fingers as soon as he landed on an answer, “You hate music. Right, that is the…hmm…lie?”

“Yeah. You are right.” Johnny placed the burger on a plate, patting his lips dry with a tissue he fished out from his coat, “To summarize, yes, I like being inebriated at wee hours of dawn and I love the Chicago Bears.”

“You are from Chicago?”

“Yeah. I moved here from Chicago because of school and then I met Doyoung and Kun. We were roommates in this studio we rented right by Upper West Side. Not the most rational decision I’ve made, seeing how things went downhill after that but I don’t regret it.”

With an approving hum, Jaehyun took a bite of his burger before quickly disposing it on the plate, as the burger formed a broken slab of meat along with the pickles.

“Disgusting,” he commented to which Johnny hesitantly bobbed his head. After that episode, Johnny offered a deal on the table, which he never expected himself to do. It was always Doyoung’s duty to bring up those arrangements, and bargain about it until Johnny would be sold out.

“Would you come on a much better lunch…” Jaehyun was already taking a large gulp of the draft beer, as he eyes him over the rim of the glass, “…like a nicer arrangement of cuisine than this?”

Jaehyun choked as soon as he placed the beer back at the table. He furiously bobbed his head, trying to cough out a “yes’ in the middle of his choking fit. Johnny fished out more tissues from his pocket and pushed his glass of water towards him so that he could calm himself down. Jaehyun came down from the peak, before spelling out,

“I would love to-” cough,” go out with you on this arrangement of cuisine you are talking about.”


	3. Pussy Dates and Other Shenanigans

Johnny was sitting down on a partly dewy wooden bench, with his legs crossed over another. It was slightly uncomfortable sitting there with drenched jeans, but he couldn’t do anything about it, since the seat was perfectly overlooking the Central Park lake. Although there were petty civilians obstructing the view, dandling their pups, children over the railings and complimenting how beautiful the view was. Johnny deemed there was no use of it, children and pups are better off than comprehending what beautiful sceneries mean. But true to their buzz, it was really beautiful, the golden hour of the evening blessing the lake, with orange hued rays, lining up the pavements and undulating waves of the water. 

It made sense somewhat to summon Jaehyun there and walk to a restaurant or pub that would catch their eye. You know, that way they would have more time to mingle and try to know each other except the fact that they work in the same office, and there was a huge gap in the respective positions they hold. For the first time in a long while, Johnny would like to have a conversation that wasn’t work or anything related to it (that counted Doyoung too).

Anyway Johnny waited after messaging Jaehyun of their rendezvous place. Hands stationed on either side, as he hunched his weight forward, and studied how pups walk with their four feet. It was comfortable, lying in solitary silence like that. However, as fate had it for him, some old lady approached him with trembling legs and a cat in her hold.

“Hello.” Johnny smiled as the lady crept closer, her white hair curled up and her stained petticoat surfing in the wind. 

“Young man, do you mind if I sit next to you?” She said, in her quivering voice, pointing to the empty spot beside Johnny. It would be rude to say no, and Jaehyun was nowhere to be around so he nodded, and let the lady sit beside him. All he prayed for, was unwanted conversations.

The white cat in her embrace meowed audibly, its hands curled up around the lady’s arms. The cat looked soft and comfortable in her hold, so Johnny craned his neck to look at it, awkwardly frisking his fingers at it. It didn’t amaze the cat whatsoever. 

“Her name is Pussy.”

“What?” It surprised Johnny a bit, so his tone might have been misleading. The woman looked at him inscrutably, as she petted the cat’s head lovingly.

“Pussy.” She repeated but Johnny wanted to say he got it the first time, “Young man, you know indigestion works right?”

“Sure.” Johnny couldn’t grasp what the woman was even blabbering and what to even say to her.

“Do you mind holding my sweet, cutie Pussy to your hands while I excuse myself to the porta-potties at the end of the street? Please keep her with you until I return.” She rubbed the cat behind its ears, before pushing the pet right in Johnny’ hands abruptly. Johnny didn’t know what to do, except hold it weirdly against his chest. The cat found itself comfortable as she rutted her face along Johnny's rough flannel shirt. The old lady stood up without another word, and slowly walked towards the other side and feigned not to hear Johnny stuttering words of confusion. 

“Should I-excuse me?!” Johnny wanted to stand up but as the time window had it, the crowd thickened incredibly and leaving the bench would mean losing a spot. So he sat back down, the cat purring in his hold. He didn't know what the rest of the evening had in store for him, since it escalated pretty quick to have some stranger’s cat curled up against his body. 

With some difficulty, he fished out his phone and was about to type a quick text to Jaehyun but was interrupted, the said man tapping on his shoulder from behind repetitively. Johnny bent his neck back only to meet Jaehyun looking down at him, with a smile. He had his brown locks wet which implied that he had showered before he came running to the park.

“Now come on,” Johnny said, gesturing to him to take the seat beside him. Only then Jaehyun noticed the slim figure peeking out from the sides of Johnny’s shirt. His eyebrows knitted, while his smile wilted to an unsure one.

“Your cat?” Jaehyun pointed. 

“Uh, this?” Johnny glanced down and found the cat peacefully sleeping among the warmth of his body, “You know what, craziest story. “

“Spill.” Jaehyun couldn’t bear but take frequent glances at the quiet feline. It was cute, finding his slumber anywhere and everywhere. It resembled Jaehyun somewhat, meaning that he was fond of naps too.

“So...this old lady…” The rest remained history, as Johnny encapsulated the story in a few words. Jaehyun nodded but only had to say,

“Are you sure it wasn’t just a hobo, who mayhaps stole a cat from some bodega and claimed it as her own?” Jaehyun excused, raking through his hair and set it back only to fall again on his eyebrows, “I mean, she probably couldn’t take care of it on her own and donated it to you.”

“Do I look like I need a pet?”

“You do look lonely. The flannel isn’t doing you any good either. Also, that hair...it’s too long.”

“Now what should I do with this?” Johnny lamented, although his hands suggested he was more than pleased with the outcome as he rubbed the cat along the forehead, “He’s cute and I don’t want to send him away...let him loiter in streets like some stray. He seems comfortable here.”

“So, don’t.” Jaehyun shrugged, taking a peek at the yawning cat who stared back at him with drowsy eyes.

“But...I had this whole evening planned with you. I wanted to take a walk to the Empire State Building, eat something at the joints and take an experience of the Big Apple. I owed you this.”

“So, you mean a date?” Jaehyun scoffed, “I thought we were going to have dinner and call it a day.”

“Well, date is...how should-'' Johnny couldn’t think of anything to reply, as his finger curled and uncurled itself in sheer timidness. Yes, maybe, he planned for a date and not a nerdy walk through New York like some tourist group. Dinner of course shouldn’t be just dinner unless it's a dinner that should be boring as shit. Also, sharing food with someone you might have a growing crush on shouldn’t be shrugged off so easily as that, Johnny might have thought to impress him. 

He hadn’t had the chance of having run for the cafes, restaurants and cabarets for dates since he dated Doyoung during their college days. It was fun back then, thinking like a young adult would. There wasn’t much to indulge in college premises anyway, unless it meant making out at the back corner of a frat party. There wasn’t much to expect. But now, Johnny was there in the real world, able to afford food that wasn’t just a 5 dollar pie or a 1 dollar snack from bodegas but mignons and bowls of pasta to fill up the stomach to the brim. Johnny, would the. check out, with leather wallet and a credit card and not curled up notes from the inside of the pockets.

“But I guess we can’t have everything nice.” Jaehyun shifted himself closer to Johnny and stretched out his hand to pet the cat, “I can do with some hotdogs though.”

Jaehyun’s octave lowered to whisper sweet nothings to the cat, scratching behind her ears while it mewed under his shadow. Johnny watched Jaehyun’s face lit up with tenderness, as he made odd shapes with his lips, spelling unusual words and noises to attract the attention of the cat. 

“Could you hold on to her while I get some hotdogs for you? I saw a stand when I was coming here.” 

“Okay.” Johnny handed the cat to Jaehyun, as the latter eagerly held out his hand to hold it. The cat sprawled its limbs as Jaehyun wrapped it again in its arms, playing with the paws.

Johnny felt overwhelmingly joyed as he hopped his way to the hotdog stand, which wasn’t far but the end of the pavement, and purchased two. Draped in brown papers, Johnny devoured a bite or two of the hotdog as he approached Jaehyun, who was then admiring the dawning view while absentmindedly fiddling with the cat’s paw. The cat looked at peace too, reclining against his beige fluffy sweater.

“I’m back.” Johnny sighed as he sat down next to Jaehyun, giving his share of the hotdogs. The wind wrestled him down as he folded his legs over another, the sky then owning a colour of pastel orange which blurred along the dark wisps of clouds, hovering in front of the setting sun.

“You know sometimes days like this…” Jaehyun said, his words muffled as he tried to chew down the bread, “...makes me think that maybe life isn’t all bad.”

“Aren’t you being philosophical and let me say…” Johnny gulped his own bite, “...unrealistically optimistic?”

“Says the one who dances his way to the office, otherwise the prison for young blue collars.”

“How the fuck do you know that?”

Jaehyun smiled dodgily, saying, “Well, a little bird may have whispered into my ear.”

“Doyoung?” Johnny groaned in exasperation, palming his face, “He seems to be the core of every media propaganda in that office. Well, I’m proud as to how far he came in a few years. It seemed like yesterday we were both aiming for the position in the office.”

Jaehyun hummed, nodding. He took another bite of the hotdog. Except the murmurs, buzz and screeches of the crowd that was slowly receding, they drowned in a comfortable silence. Although, there were the occasional yaps of a pup echoing behind the tree or bush, where it might have thought to relieve itself, it garnered a chatter in response from the cat. Johnny didn’t know what to do with the cat anytime soon, as Jaehyun would return at the end of the day. Should he leave the cat be?

“Should I leave her here? Pussy, I mean.”

“Pussy?” Jaehyun was appalled, scrunching his face in mere distraught.

“The old woman told me it was her name. Believe me, I had the same reaction.”

“I think you should take her in. That way, I can have excuses to talk to you.” It incited something in Johnny which was inexplicable, almost as if his heart had leapt to his mouth. He remembered feeling the same way when he first met Jaehyun at the elevator that fateful morning, when he worded ‘I love you’ so easily, like those words were weightless. Only Johnny knew of that exchange, and it made him uncomfortable to be overly clandestine.

“Okay. I will take her in.” 

\---

**how is the cat?**

**did you really mean to ask me that?**

**well…**

**she’s fine. cute. on my lap right now.**

**do we still have the thing on the table? i was thinking**

**warming up my vocal cords isnt that bad.**

**\---**

Johnny didn’t see himself returning to the strip of karaoke bar any time soon. The last time he went to one was during the afterparty of his graduation. After that, he either didn’t have enough time or couldn’t gather his wits to visit one. But that time, it was different. Leaning on one of the pillars, the glinting purple, blue lights dancing around his shoes, he leaned on the pillar, typing away to Jaehyun, who was still on his way. On his screen flowed, wittily worded banters, flirts and occasional memes. See, they both were aware and consensual of the other blatantly flirting, and it was fine. Fun, even. 

It somehow made Johnny sigh in relief, put up a smile on his face and believed that it wouldn’t be a one-time thing if they, eventually, end up in bed. At least, he was sure, he was slowly falling head over heels for that guy.

Last week, after the messed up hot dog date, Johnny asked for his number. _ For talking and shit _ , he said, verbatim. Jaehyun punched it in his phone happily and said he would keep in contact. Johnny thought, perhaps, he said that only out of being polite but no. Jaehyun texted him a bunch of stuff, as Johnny discovered after he went home and plopped on his bed. He didn’t know what to say back to the endless spam, so he decided to send a picture of the cat who was happily sniffing around corners.

As they met at the office, among exchanging sneaky smiles and feline hand gestures with each other from either side of the lift, they didn’t talk much unless needed to. They had their chat room for that, which was named ‘Pussy’ appropriately. But, after a while, Jaehyun had dropped by their floor during lunch hour, with an excuse that he had to meet Mark, he slipped in Johnny’s office, and whispered to meet him in the courtyard. 

Lunch dates were often, as they would sneak out at different times and meet at the cafe, they met for the first time. Over coffees and damped pie crust, Johnny would make Jaehyun laugh with his gaffes as the latter would stifle his laugh with the back of his hands. Sometimes Johnny would show off the pictures he took of Pussy, with the new cat tower and all. Jaehyun would love it, zooming in and out of the pictures as he would coo at it endlessly.

They shared sandwiches, when Jaehyun piped in that he wanted to go for a singing sesh at a random karaoke. Warming vocal cords and such, Jaehyun said before adding subtly, that he used to be in a band in his college years and that he hadn’t sung for long.

“What makes you think I would be a proper company?”

“You are someone who will compliment me no matter how my singing plays out, so I think I will exit the karaoke feeling better than before.” Jaehyun muttered after, “Gives me the confidence and motivation I need, I guess.”

One car jerked to a stop in front of the strip, as Jaehyun exited from the front seat. He was wearing his day clothes, blue suit over his creased, azure shirt. He might have been sleeping the whole trip to the karaoke, since his hair was as rowdy as a bird’s nest of twigs. Jaehyun’s attempts to fix it were in fouls, and gave it up as soon as that.

“How was your day?” Johnny asked, with a subtle smile hidden as he ducked his face low. Approaching the entrance in slowed steps. Jaehyun soon trudged beside him, hands plunged inside his pockets, stifling a chuckle.

“Doyoung was being a pain in the ass.” Jaehyun said after a while, “He wanted me to stay and complete some files and log it in the system. But, I successfully sneaked out, saying that I had to drop by the can.”

“Why did you-”

“I am here now.” Jaehyun shrugged, sighing before inclining his head to the entrance door, “Wanna get trashed and sing our lungs out?”

“I bet.” Johnny replied, biting his lips as he said so, “But I’m not much of a good singer I think I am. Don’t want to get your hopes up, if you're expecting a duet or so.”

“It’s just Dancing Queen.”

Contrary to Johnny’s words, he ended up stressing his throat more than he imagined. He took some swings of cocktail, and was ready to get his ass on the dance floor and sing it out. Jaehyun soon joined, with each of them coming in unison for a mindless duet. They looked at each other, throwing finger guns before returning their focus on the screen, the lyrics progressing smoothly in front of a background of a Florida Beach. The number soon finished, letting them choose another one.

“How about Call Me Maybe?” Jaehyun said, taking the remote and typing in the number as per the list.

“Seriously?”

“Yeah. I’ve been wanting to sing it.” Jaehyun threw the remote back on the couch, “Spare me whatever lame ass joke you are thinking off.”

Johnny laughed loudly, as the instrumental slit through the silence. His guffaws died down, as he watched Jaehyun pull the mouth close to his lips to sing the first verse, “You are cute.” It slipped through Johnny’s lips without knowing, gaining a surprised flicker on Jaehyun’s expression. 

The pitched, rhythmic instrumental kept playing as Jaehyun approached him with one and then two careful steps. The mic was forgotten on the table, where the remote lay beside it. The bright light of the screen, along with the purple party lights cast a shadow on the wall as well as Jaehyun's hardened profile, which became more clearer as he came close. He was there only a breath away, and Johnny kept looking down at him, hiding his baffled guise with a quivering smile. While Jaehyun’s face remained inscrutable, his hands seemed to do all the talking. His fingers danced up Johnny’s white sleeves, while his stare remained zeroed there.

Johnny took the initiative, to guide his hand around Jaehyun’s lower waist and tug him close. He inched his face close to Jaehyun’s ear, “You are, really, cute,” he left a kiss on his sideburns before reclining back, slowly. Johnny swore he could hear Jaehyun’s ragged, nervous breathing, while his grips tightened around Johnny’s arms. Jaehyun’s chin tipped up, slowly, painstakingly creeping close to Johnny’s, but Johnny quickly made a move to capture Jaehyun’s lips in his own accord. 

Even though there was a full blown air-conditioner in the room, Johnny could feel the heat growing from his nape to his cheek. He gently parted Jaehyun’s lips, licking the dried inner part of the bow before capturing the top lip and pulled it between his. An inaudible moan fluttered through his quivering lips, Jaehyun’s palm gripping on to Johnny’s thigh tight. He could feel his world tipping over, dizzying while the sick music kept on playing. Perhaps, something more makeout worthy would have been appropriate in having the mod right. But even without that, Johnny was losing himself in the obsessively dark abyss of only Jaehyun and he knew there was no going back.

Their bodies stayed pressed together, as Jaehyun peppered kisses, not one second from the other. He went to devouring Johnny’s skin, nipping bites ever so lightly and drowned in letting his finger frisk away along his hip bones, daringly close to his crotch. Heat pooled in Johnny’s lower abdomen as he welcomed those solicited touches, letting out occasional grunts of pleasure in between. Betwixt lapping the bare inch of skin, peeking from beneath his unbuttoned shirt, Jaehyun mouthed,

“Are we going to-” a kiss, “-do this now? There might be CCTVs rolling-”

“Fuck that,” Johnny replied between heightened breaths, “might as well dab into voyeurism.”

“Okay.” Jaehyun continued to trail kisses down on Johnny’s collarbones, his fingers popping the buttons open one by one, his knees buckling. The Call Me Baby number had ended, dimming the room in a hazy glow, and despite that Johnny could hear a “Ting!” like a ring went off inside his ear, as if an ambulance had been beckoning from far. Jaehyun chastely kissed the skin and eventually lengthened some of them, to card his marks on them.

Once Jaehyun was face to face with his crotch, the apparent heavy outline implying that Johnny was edging towards edging discomfort. Johnny wanted to be done with it; the foreplay, he meant. He wanted his wonderful mouth, where it was needed.

“Can I?” From all Jaehyun had done for the last minute, he still had the audacity to ask if he wanted to ruin him to the core.

“Go on with it.” Johnny didn’t want to be rude, but the dillydallying was getting on his nerves.

Johnny heard his belt unbuckle and felt Jaehyun gingerly hook his finger on the waistband of his boxers, that something akin to a rock band music went off, alarmingly. Johnny was worried if he had mistakenly stumbled on the remote or the TV went totally bonkers, or the people from the reception might have seen them and decided to blast off some awful music from some hidden speakers.

But no. It was awful of course, however none of that met what had come to his hands at that very moment. The one thing he dread the most, and in the very moment he was about to be sucked by the guy he liked.

“Wait.” Jaehyun mumbled, leaving his fingers from under Johnny’s boxers.

Johnny groaned in frustration, “Is it work?”

Jaehyun slowly rose from his stubbed position and wordlessly, held the receiver against his ears

“Doyoung?”

Johnny rolled his eyes, as held his waist for purchase. Naked and cold, he then wrapped up his shirt around himself shabbily, and collapsed on the couch with his legs folded in front of him. He was not having it,obviously. He was still unfortunately sporting a painful hard-on and from the looks of it, Jaehyun was too. But why, in all the time in the world and from all the people in the world, Doyoung had to be the one calling them in, like a motherfucking cock-blocker.

Jaehyun hummed to the other line, flickering a glance at Johnny, mouthing a ‘sorry’. Johnny looked away, fixing his stare on the forgotten mics.

“No, I’m fine.” Jaehyun cleared his throat, “No, I’m not doing anything right now. Yes, yes, I can come in 5. Okay. See you there. Bye.”

Jaehyun hung up the phone and sighed audibly. He looked at Johnny apologetically, about to say what Johnny knew was useless sorry(s) but he had enough of it.

“No.” Johnny mumbled, “You can go. Like, just get out.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I'm very embarrassed right now. The boner isn’t making it any better.” Johnny didn’t look at him but Jaehyun didn’t approach him either.

“Are you going to be okay?” Jaehyun picked up his suit, and threw it over his shoulder.

“I have hands and I can jack myself off, fine.”

“Okay. I’m sorry.” The door was opened before slamming close. Johnny was then alone, not in the greatest mood to relieve himself of the growing pressure inside his jeans.

\---

“Not going to talk to me?” Jaehyun said over the phone, a few shuffles on the other side could be heard, “You didn’t receive the twelve times I called you. I counted, so that I can taunt you with it.”

“Guess 13s the lucky number.”

“Johnny,”

Johnny was holed up in his apartment and he didn’t have the mood to go anywhere to celebrate the weekend.

“I know that you are going to say sorry and seriously, I’m not having it. I might have told you that I might be into voyeurism but believe me jacking yourself alone in the karaoke room, wasn’t as sexy. Plus, it threw the receptionist off because he thought he was going to see some action go down, that damn pervert. But he only gave me a stink-eye when came out of the room.”

“It wasn’t my fault-duty calls.”

“You could have said no,” Johnny added lastly as a whisper, “I know you can’t say no. Heard that too many times in the past.”

“Hey…I can make it up to you. I promise I won’t leave you blue-balled.”

“What-so we can get it done in the office W/R but until or unless one of our colleagues and you have to make a run for it?”

“Listen, I don’t want to keep it a secret as much you don’t.” Jaehyun said, his tone growing frustrated, “And I was thinking if I could come and visit your apartment and see Pussy in the meanwhile. But if you want to ruin such a sentiment, then go off, I guess.”

“It’s okay. Come over.” Johnny added later after as an afterthought, “I missed you.”

“Didn’t take much to melt you.”

“I think I’m growing softer.”

“How about tonight?”

“Sounds great.”

\---

Jaehyun pressed a kiss on Johnny’s bare chest before laying down beside him on the bed and they both stared pointlessly at the ceiling. Johnny fingers were restlessly making circles on the latter’s risk, humming ‘Call Me Maybe’ under his breath.

“This is way better than the karaoke.”

“But that doesn't make it okay for you to leave me-so desperate.” Johnny turned to his side, hands slipped under his head, as he memorized his after-sex glow.

“I said I’m sorry.” Jaehyun pleaded, although Johnny was making a joke, “Want me to make it up to you again-by giving you a brainwashing blowjob so that you forget that ever happened?”

“You give good blowjobs. I mean, your mouth does wonders.” Johnny touched Jaehyun’s lips with his fingers as he spoke, “But, we are too tired and so maybe we can both rest it. Seriously, you surprised me with your kinky positions…how many do you have up your sleeve?”

“Too many to count.”

Johnny hummed, patting Jaehyun’s lips lightly. ‘Cute’ he whispered under his breath, inhaling sharply. His heavy eyelids were drooping close, and he felt the sleepiness overtake him. Johnny excused that he would be sleeping now, and turned his back on Jaehyun as he took some breath in.

“You too. Get some sleep.” Johnny yawned. He felt the weight on the bed shift, as Jaehyun turned to the other side, pulling half of the blanket that was wrapped around their waist, to the tip of his chin.

“Good night.” Jaehyun said, letting out a mewl of content.

Johnny thought of the other time, he saw Jaehyun half-asleep on the lift. He wondered if Jaehyun sleep talked, considering how he answered Johnny’s pestering ‘I love you’s. He slightly looked over his shoulder, before turning back and adjusted the hem of the blanket over his bare abdomen. Johnny’s mouth opened and closed, thinking that he would answer the same if he called out to him again. That time, meaningfully.

“Jaehyun?”

The latter hummed, indicating he wasn’t yet asleep.

“Jaehyun…do you sleep talk?”

“No.” Jaehyun spelt out tiredly “Why?”

“No reason. Good night.” Johnny deemed to keep it at that.

Deep into the night, Johnny still couldn’t sleep even though just moments ago, he felt he could knock off in a second. The thought of hearing him ‘I love you’ strung something inside him, and riddled him ever since. Probably, if he heard him once, then he could sleep more peacefully, unbridled with a broken record of worries.

“I love you.”

The clock ticked away and all he could hear were the soft breaths of Jaehyun, rhythmic and unperturbed. After what seemed like a while, but may have been a couple of seconds, his ears picked up,

“I love you too.”

\---

**_Sorry. Had to go :(_ **

**_Duty Calls._ **

**_See you at lunch!_ **

****

The chit scrunched up in Johnny’s hand as he lolled his head against the headstand. There left an indentation where Jaehyun curled up beside him on the bed, the blankets shuffled and strayed. Opening his fist, he took the chit and unravelled it for the second time. The ‘love you’s from last night still ringing in his ears, as his eyes focused on the scribbles of each letter. He wanted to know if he would make it to the end the second time.

“Hey…Good morning, Pussy.” The cat rubbed her head against Johnny’s denim pants, “You want your breakfast?”

The cat meowed, letting his ail wind up along his ankles. Johnny couldn’t help but smile, and picked up the cat to place it on the island’s counter. He opened the cupboard, and picked up the unopened pack of cat treats and turned around on his heels, to sprinkle on the cat’s bowl. The cat dug his head in, and crunched up the treats noisily. Johnny watched her eat with an inadvertent smile on his face, before patting the cat’s head lovingly.

Just then, he heard some indistinct shambles coming in from his bedroom. He looked up, only to find Jaehyun dragging his feet from the bathroom and coming across the living room, with Johnny’s towel wrapped around his waist and another towel massaging his wet hair. Johnny was baffled, because he never expected Jaehyun to materialize from thin air and let alone, half naked and drenched from head to toe. Also, what was that note about if he hadn’t gone to office? Was Johnny being delirious?

The surprise might have been so obvious on Johnny’s face, that Jaehyun broke down into loud guffaws.

“I thought-you went back to the office. I mean the note you left me.” Johnny said as he approached Jaehyun, standing on the other side of the living room, reclining against the wall. Jaehyun didn’t say anything but just shook his head, with a mocking smile on his lips.

“It’s Sunday. There is no office.” Jaehyun said after a while, petering into mischievous chuckles. Johnny frowned, and only took a step ahead.

“I only wanted to play with you a bit. Also, morning means you are half-naked so I thought, more abs for me.” Jaehyun shrugged, as he picked himself up from the wall and walked closer to Johnny, to meet him halfway. He sidled up to Johnny’s warmth, while his finger drew circles on his skin of his chest. Without a word, Jaehyun travelled south, to squat in front of him and fumbled with the buckles of his jeans.

“Wait,” Johnny said, letting Jaehyun pause in the ministrations. The belt popped open and Jaehyun’s finger stayed curled on the belt loop, “Let’s take this to the bedroom.”

“Okay. Come on, big guy.” Jaehyun held out his hand for Johnny to take and as Johnny did, Jaehyun tugged him towards the bedroom. Only then, Johnny could feel a grin spreading across his face.

\---

When they were lying in between the sheets, savouring the high of their post-orgasm state, Jaehyun crept to Johnny’s torso, and lunged his hand around his wait, peppering kisses along his shoulder. Johnny, on the other hand, couldn’t keep his hands to himself, and circled his fist around Jaehyun’s nether region, rubbing him relentlessly.

“I could do this everyday. I want this every day.” Jaehyun crocked out between his kisses before continuing, “Can I have this every day, Johnny?”

“Yes. Of course. Whatever you want.”Johnny chased for Jaehyun lips, before claiming it for a hard kiss. Jaehyun kissed back with as much effort, nipping on his lower lips as he let go.

“Do you want me to tell people? Like, our colleagues. Doyoung. He wouldn’t have seen this coming.” Jaehyun sighed, dipping his head among Johnny’s neck crevice, as his pointy hair strands tickled Johnny’s chin.

“He will be okay,” Johnny assured. He knew Doyoung too much for his own good.

“Let’s tell him over dinner, okay?”

They were sitting on the opposite side of Johnny’s island counter. Jaehyun drowned in the tortillas and guacamole dip, stuffing them inside his mouth in a hurry. Johnny watched him eat, and only took a few helping of the ordered food. After their heated up session a few hours ago, they were too knackered to prepare lunch for themselves so they settled with take-out.

“Ah!” Jaehyun exclaimed, “Yesterday night, when you said you loved me…did you mean it?”

“What do you mean?” Johnny feigned to be oblivious, hiding his reddened face behind his folded hands. The music in the background was the same one from Johnny’s playlist from before, Frank Sinatra’s, Somethin’ Stupid. Johnny found out, while he had been arranging his playlist to listen to over their homey lunch, that Jaehyun loved Frank Sinatra too.

“You sleep talk, don’t you?” Jaehyun said, picking up another tortilla piece and munching it, “I always thought I would be the one sleep talking based on the way that if I sleep, I sleep too deep.”

\--- 

“This feels like an awful deja vu.” Doyoung resorted to the corner seat of the booth, while Johnny was situated opposite of him, his hands wrapped around a hot cup of coffee.

“Glad you are still having them.” Johnny shrugged, pulling the cup to his lips. The small sip of coffee pricked his tongue, and he hissed as a result. Doyoung looked at him, plainly before pulling a tissue from the tissue holder on the table and offered it to him.

“Seriously, you never learned, did you?” Doyoung rolled his eye, while Johnny snatched the tissue from his hands, “Never drink the coffee in the first second. My harangues never got you.”

“Well, I did tell you they were of no use.”

“Why did you call me here?” A waitress came in and slipped the tray of an omelette with a side of morning tea on the table, and Doyoung dismissed her away with a soft, ‘thank you’. He turned to Johnny with a hardened stare, as his hands made the work to stab his omelette with the forks provided. He continued saying, 

“I never thought the day would come that I would see your name flashing on my phone.”

“I never imagined you not deleting my number.”

“Just cut to the chase.”

“I am dating Jaehyun, seriously. I really like him.” Johnny felt awkward, confessing that to his old paramour, but it had to be done, “I don’t want to repeat the same mistakes I did with you, unfortunately so sometimes…I think we need to be civil about it.”

“Well…” Doyoung laughed menacingly, “…is this your way of taunting me? Should I pop a celebratory champagne for you? I don’t think they have it on the menu.”

Johnny didn’t know what to say to that. He thought if being there was the right decision. But based on Jaehyun’s endless nags and whines about how he should confront Doyoung about their relationship so their life wouldn’t become hell, it seemed okay. Johnny could do that and get the dinner over with.

“You know, Johnny…” It pulled Johnny’s attention from the rolled-up tissue paper in between his fingers, “…you are the most uncompromising and selfish person I have ever met. You really hurt me, the time we broke up. It’s like all the college years we worked so hard to keep ourselves afloat was of vain and a waste of time.”

“I’m sorry-”

“No, let me continue.” He went back to cut through the stubborn piece of omelette, “But, now that I see it…it’s cool that you broke up with me. It just meant I was not going to waste any more years with someone who didn’t love me back.”

“I loved you. Even for a short time, I did.”

“My hate campaign at the office never worked. At least, it didn’t work for Jaehyun, who seems to be head over heels for you. You know, don’t be a fucking twat to him. Be nice.”

“Okay.” Johnny smiled. He knew Doyoung would come around, “Want me to pay? I’m being nice.”

“Thank you. But I still hate you.”

\--- 

“Doyoung still hates you.” Jaehyun sighed heavily, hiding a yawn with the back of his hands, “He is very much adamant about his decision of not coming to our apartment. I mean, we are two years into this and he has a boyfriend so why keep dragging your past out?”

“I didn’t expect much less from him. It’s his own unresolved issues,” Johnny pulled Jaehyun by his shoulder as Jaehyun rested his head on Johnny’s biceps,” We should steer away. Also, you don’t sound very angry while you are sleepy.”

Jaehyun looked up to see it was only a floor to Johnny’s office, so he pulled himself away from Johnny’s hold. But, Johnny yanked him right back on his chest and smooched a kiss on the thick lock of his crown.

“A few more seconds.”

The display above counted up from 3 to 5, as Johnny embraced Jaehyun a little tighter. People would think he had abandonment issues with how much force he ended up caging Jaehyun in his arms, but Johnny didn’t care much. Whether it was PDA or not, Johnny made sure to let Jaehyun know he loved him very much so.

“Come on,” Jaehyun whined, albeit groggily and didn’t have much strength to tear himself away from the bear hug.

“I love you,” Johnny whispered quietly, and only for Jaehyun to hear. The lift halted on their designated floor, and without a word, Jaehyun unwound himself from Johnny’s arms. Johnny watched him go, but before the lift would shut close, Jaehyun turned around and said, 

“I don’t.” 

It was a joke and Johnny knew it well. He didn’t answer well to his ‘I love you’s well, even when he was sleeping.

“I have heard it too many times before,” Johnny said to himself as he pressed the button to his floor.


End file.
